


The Living Force

by Prudential



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Jedi, Jedi Knights, Major Original Character(s), Mandalorians - Freeform, Minor Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Pre-Star Wars: The Old Republic, Sci-Fi, Sith, Star Wars - Freeform, jedi order, old republic, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25419565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prudential/pseuds/Prudential
Summary: Thousands of years before the Battle of Yavin, the Galaxy is in an tense period of peace. The Republic is reeling from the secession of many outer systems while trying to rebuild the worlds they still hold. The Jedi Order has become militant in their hunt of any who would use the Dark Side. This puts Jedi Knight Kira Elan at odds with the Order as she seeks to understand the Force.
Kudos: 2





	1. Sojourn

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This is a fic, set in the Star Wars Galaxy following a Jedi Knight that I have enjoyed writing. I plan to update this frequently. I hope you stay tuned, as I plan to slowly build this story.

War.

War was all that surrounded Kira, in every direction as far as she could see. She was suspended in the void of space, a blanket of stars filled the background with large warships blocking large swaths as they cut past her. The warships fought brutally amongst one another, brilliant streaks of turbolaser fire gauging scars into opposing hulls. Every time she tried to focus on the ships they grew blurrier. Their edges blended together, and if she tried to make out their design they seemed to change design. They could be Kuati, or Sienar; their markings the regal crest of the Republic, or the burning cog of the Commission. They could even be pirates, or factions she didn’t even know of.

Though she knew nothing of the ship’s identity, she was left with the odd understanding that they would never stop fighting. Left alone, the two factions would rip and tear at one another until their backdrop became the burning galaxy. They would move from planet to planet, system to system, fighting until there was not a planet left unspoiled from their war. Their war would split the planet apart and leave it as a floating monument to their violence. Other times, their war would set a planet ablaze, still structurally sound but devoid of any life it had once carried.

She fell through space and time as their war progressed until she was left standing on an unknown planet. Barren plains of dirt and stone surrounded her in every direction; the war had long since claimed the life in this area. The warriors didn’t care that the very world they were fighting for had died beneath them, they still fought on. She still couldn’t focus on them. They were just seething masses, firing upon one another as one side or another pushed forward. She tried to focus on their weapons at least, but she couldn’t tell what any of them were holding. One moment it looked like a soldier was carrying a bowcaster, the next moment that bowcaster may as well be a blaster carbine. 

The confusing struggle of war didn’t upset her, but Kira felt as if the Force were screaming around her. Terror and anxiety gnawed at her spirit, despite her best efforts to center herself in the Force. The sound of a lightsaber igniting brought her attention back to the war. Unlike all the others, the figure holding the lightsaber noticed her. The figure strode towards her, lightsaber extended out to obscure most of their appearance. The brilliant light from the lightsaber made Kira shield her eyes. She couldn’t even tell the color of the blade for the glare coming off it, let alone any details of the figure. When the figure was almost within arm’s reach the light felt like it enveloped her. For the first time, she gave into the terror and jerked back. 

Her head hit the cold rock wall, and as she clutched at her wound she realized that she was no longer amidst the endless war. She’d fallen asleep sprawled out on the smooth cave floor. Sitting up, she wiped away some of the drool from her cheek. The cave was pitch black, so she groped around at her belt until she found a glowstick and snapped it on. It washed the cave in warm light and helped alleviatesome of her looming anxiety.Despite being a dream that had haunted her several times before, Kira was still left in a state of dread when she woke.

The air in the cave felt cold, though the walls sealing off sections kept it remarkably warmer than the surface of the planet. Her cheek was still cold to the touch from resting her head on the floor while she slept. She slowly rose, her tired joints protesting the sudden movement. While she walked she shined the glowrod around the cave. Its walls were covered in carvings, which filled her with both excitement and disappointment. She had read of a tribe of people that centered their culture around the Force in this system. They were known only as the Ph’a, and the information on them was sparse. Various reports had placed them on all of the six planets in the Kyata system, and so Kira had visited Kyata I, II, and III. The first yielded nothing, while the second yielded only a few points of wreckage. This place had been the most substantial find of her six-day journey, and it was still very little. 

This place had only been some kind of outpost, and only some of the carvings had been anything she could understand. There were two languages used, an archaic form of basic and a script that the translation overlay on her datapad couldn’t understand. She had meditated in this place, reaching out to the Force to try and detect any lingering presences; it had yielded nothing. She wondered if this was even the system they were from, or if it was just a neighboring system. Nearing on the Outer Rim as they were, the systems were hardly all-explored. An unknown solar system could be their true home, and Kira could spend another six days exploring the other planets only to have no closer an understanding on the Force than she used to. 

This place would probably be of great value to some historian or museum, but to her it was next to useless. It took her several minutes to weave through the dark maze of cave tunnels to end up at the surface door. It was an old and rusted metal door, and when she hit its activation panel it took several seconds for the door to fully open. As the door split apart, beams of light shone through to cast light on her. With no further need for it, she clicked the glowrod off and clipped it back onto her belt. 

It was late afternoon on the planet ofKyata III and she had landed during its cold season. Frigid air bit at her skin as she stepped outside, prompting her to pull her cloak closer. She was headed for her nearby ship, and she hastened her pace to get out of the cold quicker. As she approached, she could see her _Nebulon-Courier_ waiting for her exactly where she’d left it, sparking a feeling of reassurance in her. Her initial scans on approach hadn’t shown any humanoid life forms near the outpost, so she hadn’t expected anyone to mess with her ship. Still, life form scanners were notoriously unreliable and there was always the possibility. 

The _Nebulon-Courier_ was an odd and asymmetrical ship. It was the size of a starfighter, but its cockpit was large enough to stand up and move around in, and could fit two more passengers. The ship was designed around a central, circular wing, with engines and the cockpit on one side, and weapons on the other. It could cut through atmosphere and space rather quickly, making it an ideal survey vehicle for Kira. 

There was the groan of cold servos as the small step-ramp for the cockpit lowered, and then again when the doors slowly slid open. Kira hurried inside, and slapped the control to seal the doors as soon as she was inside. Inside the door and to the left was the pilot’s seat, situated at the front of the cockpit. It was surrounded on two sides by control panels and switchboards, with a broad view of the actual space outside through a domed viewport around it. 

Behind it to either side were the ship’s two passenger seats, each with an optional console that could be opened from the floor. This allowed them to play the role of navigator or gunner, both of which could be done by the pilot if the ship was flown solo. To the right of the door were several storage bins for supplies, cargo, or valuables. There was a slim refresher unit in the corner, large enough only to stand inside. On the wall opposite the door was a multi-purpose food prep station, with a small refrigerated storage area. 

Kira moved slowly to the pilot’s seat, her joints now tired and cold, making them extra uncooperative. She quickly went through the routine of switching the ship on, turning the generator on first, then the life support, and finally the warmup sequence for the engines. It would take her a few minutes before she could make for orbit, while her engines warmed up. She _could_ push it, but it would cause the engines to warp. They would keep working for a short time, but soon enough she’d have to do some massive reconstructive repair on them. It didn’t take long for the air coming from her vents to heat up, and she started to feel the life come back into her appendages. 

While the ship’s systems all blinked to life, Kira decided to do another sensor sweep of the planet to see if there were any indigenous people that she could detect from the surface. She had to wait several seconds as the sensor display came online, and then she triggered a general scan. The display showed a blue ring emanating from the central representation of her ship. The scan turned up nothing, so she widened her range and parameters. Rather than a life form scan she queued a broad range scanner ping, and again the display showed a blue wave radiating out from her. This time the display zoomed out as the scan went further and further, finally showing a rough view of space. There was still nothing. Kira leaned back in her seat, giving up on any redemption for this trip. 

She’d resorted to watching the condensation of her breath in the air, but the chime of the engines’ readiness brought her attention back to the control board. All the engines’ indicators were reading green, so she flicked the switch for ignition and lifted the ship from the planet’s surface. Though it wouldn’t take long for her to arrive at Kyata IV, she would probably choose to spend the night in her ship before exploring anything the world might offer. 

She was halfway to the edge of the atmosphere when her tactical computer began to wail an alert. She pressed the button to active its display, and saw that there were a trio of red dots converging on her. The indicator beside each of them pulsed several times as the computer deciphered their IFFs. Their _Unidentified Starship_ names blinked out for a second, and then were replaced by _COMMISSION MK-VI Interceptor._

She had known that this was a border system, and still had neglected to update her logistical computer with new military data before traveling out here; that mistake had now left her face to face with three Commission starfighters. Normally she would find the odds exhilarating, she’d certainly beaten them at worse numbers than three-to-one, but that was with proper arms and armor. Presently she was alone in a lightly shielded scout ship. 

As they grew nearer, Kira noted how unusual it was to find the Commission outside their space. There were those in the military who believed the Commission’s leadership had been destroyed, and that the Commission was little more than scattered holdouts that still bore the old colors. It was a theory that had been corroborated by a complete silence on their front, and the cessation of most all raids. 

She belatedly jerked the controls up, kicking herself for letting fatigue make her slow. The starfighters shifted course quickly to pursue, and her ship rocked violently as it took a hit from one of their laser cannons. Twice more it shuddered, and her shield display urgently implored her to avoid more of the shots. She flipped the ship over several times in a roll, narrowly avoiding another barrage of laser fire. As the starfighter came out of its roll, she highlighted the nearest of her pursuers on her targeting computer. Her turrets swiveled and began returning fire, forcing the attacking ships to put more distance between them. 

She slipped from atmosphere to space and began inputting her destination into the navcomputer to calculate the exit jump. She needed to leave the system, but hadn’t settled on an end destination yet. Kyata IV was still programmed in from her trip plan, and from there she could jump again to leave the system.The ship shuddered again as one of the Interceptors landed a hit; the shield display warned that another hit would fully deplete them. Though anxiety gripped her body, Kira took a deep breath and began to draw the Force inside her. As she fell in sync with the Force, she pinched her eyes shut and trusted it to guide her hands. By mystical instinct, Kira’s hands jerked left and right, evading two separate barrages of fire with a quick roll. 

Her navcomputer gave a familiar chime that it was nearly done with calculations while Kira plunged into a dive. For a moment it seemed as if her careening maneuver had been effective, but the Intercepters regained a lock and sprayed her with laser fire. The first hit took out the shields, while the second gauged through her hull. Alarms screamed loudly around her, but her only resort for now was to mute them and pray to the Force that the hyperdrive hadn’t been damaged.

The navcomputer’s light changed to green, giving Kira the go-ahead to finally launch the ship into hyperspace. The ship lurched forward as she pulled back on the hyperdrive lever, and the stars smeared together into straight white lines. She felt the ship shake unnaturally as one last shot made contact while they jumped. She sat in silence for several seconds, bathed by the flickering light of hyperspace outside. When the final hit didn’t prove fatal to the ship, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. The main computer displayed a damage report, with a number of core systems listed in red to indicate they were damaged. Reading through them, she frowned at the hyperwave transmitter’s inclusion in the damage report. She would have to test that when she exited this jump. If it was, this would be a long and lonely trip. 

The navcomputer showed four minutes left on her trip. She would need to settle on a destination, and she hoped to test the hyperwave transmitter at the same time. If that was truly damaged this would make for a long and quiet trip.


	2. Flight

****With her ship in hyperspace, the threat to her life had been abated for now.Kira now became aware of the adrenaline that’d been coursing through her veins. The scrambling evasion that she’d been forced to make left her nerves on edge, but she could feel her heart slowly lowering to a normal pace. She still kicked herself for missing their arrival in the system through the Force; exhaustion had worn down her perceptiveness.

She remained stiffly in place for several moments, hands sitting idly in her lap. Even lying still she could feel them trembling from the sudden panic. On foot, Kira could have danced around each of those shots with ease—not one would have hit her. In the air she was limited by her piloting skills and her ship. Though she was a fair pilot, the _Nebulon Courier_ was not a nimble ship. 

_If the Commission was in the system, Kyata IV was no more safe a destination than Kyata III had been._ The realization dawned on Kira and sent her into another spiral of anxiety. The hyperdriver’s monitor still read two minutes left, but she pulled out early. The blurred star-lines, which had been casting a flickering glow on her face, suddenly reverted back to pinpricks. She could see Kyata IV in the distance, still too far for timely sublight travel, but much closer than it had been. She would be safe here though, she doubted there would be any Commission ships in the nebulous space between planets. They had fewer ships to spare than the Republic.

Still, for peace of mind, she activated a sensor sweep of the area around her. No ships were within her sensor range. Out of danger for now, Kira had time to review the damage report. To her chagrin, the entire communications suite was highlighted in shades of red. Some of the systems systems were fixable, given the necessary tools and parts, but other critical systems were entirely destroyed. She wouldn’t be making any calls until the ship underwent repairs. 

The Commission’s presence in the system spelled an end to her trip, meaning she needed to determine where she would head from here. The Kyata system was sandwiched in the neutral area between the Republic and the Commission’s presumed border. She could jump within Republic space and drop her ship for repairs somewhere near the border, but there was a quicker option. 

The Jedi Order maintained ‘Temple Outposts’ outside the Republic, they projected the Jedi’s presence beyond just the Republic’s jurisdiction. Kira had been taught that the outposts allowed the Jedi to fulfill the Force’s will on a local scale. The Jedi were meant to help and protect all beings, and the outposts let them do that for those beyond the Republic’s reach. With age she came to see that it was more of a projection of the Jedi’s power, rather an the extension of their ability to serve. She wondered, sometimes, if the outposts had lived up to their purported ideals even during the height of the Jedi Order. There was a specific outpost near Ord Cantrell, on Phaeda, that she was interested in. She wasn’t sure that there were repair facilities at Phaeda, but her ship could be transported from Phaeda somewhere else; she was more interested in the Outpost’s staff. Seena would be happy to see her.

It took the navcomputer several minutes to calculate the course to Phaeda. Eventually it announced that the trip would take twelve hours, and require three stops to reorient and jump again. Kira spun the ship in the direction the navcomputer indicated, and jumped for the first of the stops. The navcomputer estimated it would be three hours before their first stop, so Kira set a timer on her chrono for two hours and fifty five minutes. She would sleep for most of the flight, but would need to rise to adjust the ship’s orientation to re-jump. Otherwise, the ship would drift through realspace waiting for her. With everything squared away for flight, Kira leaned back, closed her eyes, and tried to drift to sleep. 

———

“Are you coming or not?” A voice called from Kira’s left. Li-Jai Ico stood in her refresher’s open doorway. She hadn’t heard the Twi’lek come in, but resisted turning to look at her for fear that she might streak her work. She was leaning close to the mirror, carefully detailing blue liner around her eyes. Li-Jai snorted, “Ah of course, you’re still worrying over that.” 

Finally finished with her work, Kira looked over at Li-Jai just to roll her eyes. “I already know I’m going to win, I’ve just got to ensure I look good doing it.” Her friend had chosen to go a much simpler route. Her lekku were bound behind her head with a simple metal band, ensuring that they wouldn’t sway around while she was fighting. 

Li-Jai’s lekku didn’t reach her elbow, and were thinner than those Kira was used to seeing—indicative of Li-Jai’s age. As she grew older they would lengthen, and thicken. She was a blue skinned Twi’lek, and her face was dotted with darker blue freckles. Li-Jai had foregone any makeup, and was wearing simple brown Jedi robes.

Kira wore a long black tunic with gold trim. It extended nearly to her knees, and left her arms exposed. She had gloves on that stretched nearly to her elbow, and were the same black and teal as her tunic. Her hair had been pulled back into a neat ponytail, and was held in place with a teal band. Her lightsaber hung by her side, glinting light every time she shifted position. It was a smooth design, tapering off into a slanted pommel, and its hilt was engraved with intricate designs. 

“Alright, let’s go.” Kira moved past Li-Jai, who turned to follow her out into the hall. “Have you been by the gym yet?” she asked. 

“Yeah.” 

“Who’s there already?”

“Darien, Vos’lan, and Shai were all there. It’s supposed to start in two minutes, I suppose anyone who plans to compete—aside from us—is there.” 

The pair of them turned into a broader hallway that would take them to the gym. The temple’s hallways were tall and wide, with floors made of polished brown marble. There were support pillars along the wall, which Kira imagined were more for appearance than functionality. 

“Darien is who I’ll end up fighting at the end.”

“Shai was good,” Li-Jai countered. “I saw her dueling outside a while ago, and she was able to handle two others.” 

“She’s too fast, she burns herself out quickly. She can take the first few fights she’s in, but after that she starts getting sloppy. By the time I have to fight her, _if_ I have to fight her, she’ll be swinging like a youngling.” Li-Jai seemed to take Kira’s confidence as arrogance, she could feel the flash of amusement through the Force. It was no matter, she would be proven right. 

The gym was a broad, tall room. A balcony encircled the top of the room, seldom used aside from events like this. Normally, half the gym was outfitted with training matts, while the other half was filled with physical exercise machinery. For the day’s tournament, the entire gym had been reorganized. The room was cut in half, with a dueling ring on either side. The rings were no more than a large training mat, with rope around the edges to enforce the boundaries. The room was packed with Kira’s peers, while the balcony saw more older Jedi and younglings. Some were contestants who would fight later, others were just friends here to cheer. Others were older Knights and Masters who had former pupils, or friends, fighting. 

As earlier noted, both Darien and Shai were already present. The two friends were standing by the right dueling ring, idly talking before the event started. The Force buzzed with nervous energy from the entire room, but the pair looked perfectly calm and collected. Kira wondered how many matches it would take to shake that. She and Li-Jai took their place in the crowd and waited for the tournament to begin. It wasn’t a tournament sanctioned by the Temple—those were very infrequent—but it wasn’t one of the illicit competitions frowned upon by the Masters. Kira had also taken part in some of those no-holds-barred fights, and still maintained her pristine record. A few minutes after her arrival, a pair of protocol droids split to stand beside each of the rings. In their artificially inflected voices, the droids read off the pairings for the first of the day’s matches

The dueling went quick, and some of the first fights were among the fiercest Kira had ever seen. Others were defeats so stinging that she cringed out of sympathy. Her own opening matches went well, none of them posing so much of a challenge that she feared for her victory. Her initial opponent had been a second-year padawan who didn’t deserve such an early ending to his day. 

Meanwhile, as Kira expected, Shai was tiring quickly from her fights. The fourteen-year-old Padawan had gone into her first matches full of energy. Her blade swung with speed and power that could overwhelm some Knights, but there was only so long one could keep that up. As she and Kira grew nearer and nearer in the tournament bracket, Shai’s fighting deteriorated worse and worse. Kira began to hope that she would overcome her opponents long enough to face her. The victory over a sloppy Shai would make for months of bragging. Unfortunately, she had not been the one to eliminate Shai. 

The semi-final pairings saw Kira paired against a Kel Dor named Ahri Tymon. She was unfamiliar with the other padawan, but was not disappointed by the fight she put up. Kira disarmed and defeated Ahri before Darien and Shai had finished, giving her a few extra minutes to recover. She considered watching her peers duel, but chose instead to meditate and stave off some of her growing fatigue. Despite her closed eyes, Kira could feel the fight going on. As she had predicted, Kira felt the bitter sting of defeat radiate from Shai.

After a short break for the Padawans to drink some water and collect themselves, Kira and Darien were pitted against each other for the tournament’s final round. This wasn’t the first time they had fought each other, and Darien had yet to come out on top of Kira in a fight. Kira chose to start the fight theatrically, as she often would. It was her style, and it off-put Darien—a double win. She stood perfectly still, her legs shoulders width apart. Her hands formally clutched her lightsaber, pointed up right, just in front of her chest. Importantly, her eyes were pinched shut and her face devoid of any expression. Even when the sparkling protocol droid declared the round to start, Kira acted as though she were deaf. 

Darien was forced to make the first move, and moved in for a sweeping strike from shoulder to hip. Kira stepped to the side, avoiding his strike and forcing him off balance. Immediately she pressed her advantage. Kicking his sword-arm in the elbow. His lightsaber went flying from his hand, and Darien had to tuck into a roll to recover. Pulling it to him with the Force, his saber was back in his hand before it hit the ground. Kira moved in, pressing him with a flurry of fast attacks as soon as he snapped his blade back on. On random intervals, she would pull her attack and shift her attention, putting Darien off balance. Twice she scored hits on him, once on his arm, and once on his side, but both times he twisted away to prevent a loss.

She was pressing in for the win, when he caught her off-guard with a sudden blast of the Force that sent her flying. It felt like a tidal wave hit her in the chest, knocking all the air from her lungs. She was still trying to breathe when Darien leapt to her position. He brought his blade swinging down at her, but she was able to bring her own lightsaber up fast enough to catch it. She retaliated with her own desperate blast of the Force, hitting Darien in his right knee. He was wrenched to the ground, and Kira was able to regain her footing. 

Both of them were slow to move in again for the attack, and they circled each other for several seconds. Finally, Darien swiftly charged in for the attack. The two of them met in a swift flurry of blows, the roles of attacker and defender changing by the beat. While Darien swept his blade for a hip-to-shoulder strike, Kira poured her remaining strength into a jump. Propelled by the Force, she shot into the air and performed a neat flip over Darien’s head. She made sure to tuck her knees to her chest for safety, and landed squarely behind him. He was already trying to spin and strike at her, but she caught his blade arm by the forearm in one hand. With the other, she shoved her lightsaber into his side. It was set to training mode, so it would do no more than the equivalent of a sunburn, but Darien still cried out in momentary pain. 

The fight was over now, her blow would have been killing, and to fight on would be unsportsmanlike. Kira released his arm and deactivated her blade. Darien clutched his side with one hand, while the other fumbled to deactivate his lightsaber and hang it on his belt.

Though it wasn’t an official tournament, both Padawans knew the eyes of important Jedi were still on them. They gracefully bowed to one another, and slipped from the ring. Darien skulked away broodily, nursing his wounded pride, while Kira strutted like a champion. The crowd was dispersing now, and the soft murmur of conversation had reached the point where individual conversations were difficult to hear from any measure of distance. 

As Kira passed Darien outside the ring, she paused and looked over at him. “Cheer up, you fought pretty well out there. I could tell you were actually trying this time.”

His eyes flashed with momentary ire, which he quickly choked down. Kira just smiled and continued walking. The tournament was done, and she was quite pleased with herself for continuing her lossless streak.

———

Phaeda consumed most of Kira’s viewport as her small, battered ship floated towards it. Most of its surface was too dark to make out, but Kira could see the bright swirls of blue and green near the edges, where the system’s sun peeked over the horizon. The ship’s speed was locked in now, so she rubbed her eyes to try and wake up better. She’d only been awake for ten minutes—roused by the loud hyperspace alarm which announced their arrival. 

Sprinkled through the space around her, invisible to the eye in such low-light, were dozens of other ships. Kira could see their rudimentary outlines through the scanners that still worked, but moreover she could feel their pilots through the Force. Alarm prickled in one of the pilots, and then began to ripple to several of the others as they no-doubt communicated. Kira’s groggy mind turned the situation over in her head, trying to determine what might have sparked their alarm. It began to dawn on her how unusually quiet this planetary approach had been, and then the other pieces fell into place. Her communications were out, meaning she’d missed any attempts they’d made to hail her. They were probably radioing the surface for orders at this very moment.

Embarrassment flushed her cheeks, and she belatedly reached beneath the console to activate the ship’s distress beacon. It took several moments, but the tense alarm around her began to fade. Had this been Coruscant or Tython, rather than an outpost, those same Jedi may have already moved to intercept her. Even as she descended to the planet, she noticed on the display that two of the ships had split off to loosely escort her. 

The Temple Outpost’s primary building was a square, stocky structure made of stone and permacrete. It was built to resemble a true Temple, and squatty stone pillars extended from each corner. Instead of imitating the timeless Jedi designs, as intended, the building looked more like a garrison to Kira. The outpost was built near the edge of a tall cliff, which overlooked a small sea and chain of islands. Scattered around the main building, there was a prefab armory and barracks, as well as several small maintenance structures. Tastefully nestled into the edge of the cliff was a wide, tall hangar. Its threshold was twinkling with the pale blue glow of a magnetic forcefield, which Kira knew kept it airtight. A network of underground halls and rooms connected the hangar and other structures; more living quarters and functional areas were nestled in the tunnels.

The hangar was large enough to facilitate ships much larger than Kira’s _Nebulon Courier,_ though most of the ships present were starfighters or freighters. While she set the ship down, she cringed out of fear that it might lurch or fall from a damaged landing gear. To her relief, the ship nestled firmly down on its landing gear with little more than a mechanical groan. Kira went through the procedure of powering down the ship, but could feel a familiar presence. Through the cockpit viewport she could see that there had tall woman in light-tan robes waiting for her, though she was now approaching Kira’s ship. From this distance she couldn’t make out the other woman’s face, but her familiar presence in the Force was enough; Kira could recognize Seena Vas from miles away. 

Kira’s body silently groaned in exhaustion as she stood. Her movement was scored by the soft popping of her joints, and she was reminded just how little rest she’d given her body for the past week. By the time Kira stepped from the ship, Seena was standing at the base of the ramp waiting for her. The flowing tan cloak she wore had become signature to her appearance. Beneath it, her clothes betrayed how quickly she’d gotten dressed, as her intricate tunic had been sloppily drawn together and fastened with a crooked belt. Her blonde hair, normally drawn back into a tight ponytail, messily fell around her shoulders. 

Seena motioned to the deep black scars on its hull. “I see you made some new friends.” She sounded as exhausted as Kira felt. “Are you alright?” In the dim light of the hangar Kira could see that her face was pinched with concern. 

“Yeah I’m fine,” she assured, brushing off any cause for concern. “I just got harassed a little while I was leaving planet.” 

Seena looked her over, and then pulled her into a hug. The two stood there like that for several seconds, but Seena ultimately pulled away with a wrinkled nose. “You smell terrible,” she said, clearly trying hard not to laugh.

Kira winced in embarrassment, but conceded a nod. “I’ve either slept in my pilot’s seat, or on a cave floor, for the past week.”

“How long have you been wearing these clothes?” She pinched a section of Kira’s tunic and grimaced at how dirty it was. “Come on, take a shower and I’ll go pull out some of your clothes.” Seena took Kira by the hand and lead her out of the hangar. Despite it being early in the planetary-morning, Kira instinctively glanced around to ensure no one saw their display of affection. “Did you find anything interesting on your trip, before it was interrupted?”

Kira’s nose wrinkled in lingering frustration, and she shook her head. “I found decent evidence that the society I read about exists, but nothing of any substance. I slept on a cave floor and ate ration bars for a week, just for some anthropological discoveries.” Seena snorted a tired laugh, prompting Kira to cast a rebuking glare in her direction. “I’m glad my misfortune is prime entertainment for you.”

Seena squeezed her hand, “It’s not _that,”_ she assured. “I never thought I’d see something that could get Kira Elan to sleep on a grimy floor.” 

Seena’s living area was in the outposts main temple-like building, on one of its upper floors. As one of the more senior Knights, she had a full-sized apartment with a living area, bedroom, kitchen, and a large refresher. “Go ahead and clean up, I know how much you’re dying,” Seena told her. “I’ll get you some clothes and try to stay up.” She leaned in and gave Kira a quick kiss, and then groggily staggered back into the apartment to look for some clothes.

Kira spent nearly an hour in the refresher, soaking under the heat of her shower. It felt good to soak under the heat, and let the stress of the last day leave her. It’d been almost a week since she’d had a shower that was more than a pressurized mist. 

When she emerged, Seena had set out some of her clothes that were left here. She had clearly fallen asleep while waiting up for Kira. She was sprawled across the bed on her side, overtop her blankets. Kira gently moved her so that she could tuck her into the blankets, and then slipped beneath them herself. A soft bed felt nice to her tired body, and she quickly fell asleep.


End file.
